> Eric and others: you're just misunderstanding this "anarchist" position.
And you and Doug won't acknowledge that it IS a position. It may be wrong, but they hold it on the basis of careful thinking. Remember: Wrong opinions are not evidence of either stupidity or ignorance or immorality. They are just as rationally based as yours or mine are. Doug wants to call them purists -- then lies to himself that he hasn't comited the logical error of ad hominem argument. I don't believe either you or Doug are interested in changing opinions in OWS or in refuting the anarchist line; you are just interested in asserting the superiority of your opinion up in the bleachers sneering at those down below.
I think the anarchists are probably wrong; I'm also glad that they are pushing it hard. I hope they hang in there. They've turned the world upside down; they have changed the public debate, they have opened up u.s. politics as they haven't been opened since 1967 or so.
You two are the purists. You insist that only within your framework is argument legitimate. That is political suicide. There are other rational positons that are going to have a big voice in any social transformation from radical reform to smashing the state. You better leanr to respond to them in amore civil fashion or you aregoing to be mighty lonely.
The anarchists are blocking a proposal. So what! They have a right to and they even have good reasons to. Again, I would do differently, but you haven't touched their position when you merely triumphantly proclaim, see, just as I said, they are blocking what I think is a good proposal. Get down there; wait your turn; argue for the proposal. Or form an organization of your own to work for a similar proposal.
But you might give a few seconds to the following question: Would anyone anyplace be loudly discussing these proposed demands if it hadn't been for the OWS popular uprising spreading around the owrld. The demand is out there now, regardless of whether OWS adopts it! You have what you want and you are still just bellyaching about the way you got it.
Carrol